Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve may be my favourite part of Christmas - it's the only part with fairly firm traditions. For everything else we pretty much go with the flow but Christmas Eve has become quite ritualised over the years.

This year we had dinner at Lee and Joan's with the Hugo family from Joan's ward - fish, special volkhorn bread, hummus, olives, feta and orange juice - and damper.

And we had an extra nativity at Joan's house.

Peter Hugo is more than a little bit musically talented and he brought his harp - that he made by hand - to play for us. And Joan joined him on the Cello for Away in a Manger.

Tom sang Angels we Have Heard on High - in Russian. (I think he gave a total of five performances over Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.)

Thomas was Joseph, seated beside Mary, with Roger the wiseman and Lee as King Herod.

After rounding up that lovely part of the evening we drove across to Becky and Trav's where Becky had hung pictures of Christmas past all over the walls - lovely.

Paul and Lynn and Tahlia came this year too. We had the nativity play and the present game before Becky and Travis went back to work - leaving us with an enormous box of rocky road to munch on all the way home.

Finally, the kids all slept in the shed while Roger and I played Santa.

And this year beside our stockings we found a note and a chocolate from Peet, Lousia and Max saying that they were playing Santa as well this year for Roger and I - too sweet.